Don’t forget we’re the best, Guardiola tells City stars

Both Clubs have been through great change since then of course, most recently when Wenger's 22-year reign came to end at the end of the last campaign, with new boss Unai Emery providing Pep Guardiola and City with a fresh challenge first up in the Premier League. The other players are OK, and we are working on the possibility to work with Ainsley, who has experience in this [left-back] position.

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany lifted the English Premier League trophy back in May and it now looks like an eternity ago.

"I am looking every day and the players are smiling in training with a big collective spirit".

"When we were in Spain each match against Barcelona with Valencia is very exciting and very demanding for me also to prepare for this match". "If we are good and consistent like last season, we have a good chance".

"We will have bad moments and we will have to work to overcome them because in the end the players react to what the club is, what the manager and the staff are".

A cynic might suggest Emery's feat of winning the Europa League three years in a row with Sevilla was the most relevant achievement on his CV prior to his appointment at Arsenal - who will compete in Europe's second-tier competition for a second successive season.

Ahead of the game, on the Premier League Launch show on Sky Sports, Pep gave a ten minute talk about the tactics that he was planning on using this season and how his side could learn from their success of last season. That's the basic principle, ' he urged.

"Forget how much Liverpool have spent because they may have spent a lot but last season they were a good team as well". Their defence will be even stronger this season too, especially after the World Cup campaign's Kyle Walker and John Stones had.

"Maybe Tottenham couldn't spend because of the stadium, but Chelsea - imagine Jorginho, [Mateo] Kovacic and [N'Golo] Kante in midfield, and [Eden] Hazard, Willian, Pedro and [Alvaro] Morata in front".

"We can be excellent but the others can be excellent too".

With funds few and far between this summer, it might take an exit to free up some capital for Emery to play with today.

Head coach Unai Emery could hand debuts to Bernd Leno, Lucas Torreira and Sokratis Papastathopoulos. 'It hurts when you cannot let some of them play.

"Now he is at Arsenal, one of the best teams in England, and of course he is a contender to win titles". "I think we can be good together".